windows 8 can not be activated, Threshold stop increasing

[johnhu866]

Hi Guys,

All my windows 8 can not be activated. Can anyone help?

Phenomenon:

1. All  windows 8 stay inactive, all  server 2012 R2 data center got activated.

2. In KMS host, the threshold stop increase for 2 days(current count is 13)

3. In KMS host, i can see from event that there are so many CMID duplicates.

4. In Vcenter (view composer), there are some errors (Event ID: 8198,  license Activation(slui.exe) failed with the following error code: hr=0xC004F074)

5. In parent virtual machine's registration. i can see in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmware-viewcomposer-ga , SkipLicenseActivation registry value is 0.

Background:

1. windows 8 version: VL version

2. we have more than 10 server 2012 R2 datacenter,

3. we have more than 20 windows 8.1 professional.

4. we bought enough vl licenses for win8 and server 2012 R2.

Thanks in advance

[Gaurav_Baghla]

LICENSING WINDOW 8  / W8

1. Open a MS-DOS console as administrator on the Parent virtual machine

2. Enter the commands below (replace the kms server for the one in your company) [Use xxx.yyy.com  internally]

slmgr.vbs -skms kmsserver.mycompany.com

slmgr.vbs -ato

Apart from that  the number of KMS clients must be at least 5 for Windows Server or 25 for Windows clients.

To obtain the current KMS client count:

Open a command prompt on the KMS host.

Run the command:

Slmgr.vbs /dli

Check the event logs for KMS for Best results

[johnhu866]

Thanks Gaurav,

i will try soon.

May i ask after i did this in parent virtual machine, do i have to create linked-clone virtual machines again?

Thanks

[Akopylov]

Hello johnhu866johnhu866.

Did you use QuickPrep or Sysprep during pool deployment?

In case of QuickPrep the KMS-service count will not be increased because of the same SID on your linked clones.

[Gaurav_Baghla]

Akopylov :Thank you but its partially correct the KMS Count does not increase because of the CMID or the Hardware KMS is not aware of the SID.

[Gaurav_Baghla]

Yes Please and you can reset the KMS count as well.

Keep this article handy How to troubleshoot the Key Management Service (KMS)

[johnhu866 · Accepted solution]

Thanks Guys, I temporarily fixed that problem. Now all my win8 clients are activated.

What i did:   In some lined clones, i manually run slmgr /rearm, then restart , then slmgr /ato; i can see each time i did this, the threshold would increase. At last after the threshold reached 25, and after less than 2 hours, all virtual machines be activated.

What i believe:  somehow  some pools'(students pool and staff pool) virtual machine share the same CMID (SID), which cause the threshold stay in 13(because i also have some server 2012 R2 datacenter );  slmgr /rearm give current virtual machine a new CMID , and after slmgr /ato , the virtual machine wil contact my KMS Host and increase the count, finally KMS count reached 25, then all vm activated.

Reason?  Is vms share same CMID  because of quickprep? i should use sysprep to initiate my parent vm(Gold Master), then recreate linked-clone pool?  Still confusion and need some test?

Thanks

[Gaurav_Baghla]

Thank you for your update.

There are certain Differences between Quickprep and SysPrep

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2003797

[nuberaldhoore]

There is s tool available to increase te KMS count. More info can be found at KMS Client Emulator for Increasing Client Count | Initial Designs

[johnhu866]

Thanks Gaurav, this info is very useful to me, good to know that. Thanks!!

Sent from my iPhone

[johnhu866]

Dear nuberaldhoore,

Thanks for giving such a good tool! It is very useful.

Thanks

Sent from my iPhone